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Should Vaccinations Be Mandatory?

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Audrey Miller Research Paper Draft Laura Thompson 10/21/15 Should Vaccinations be Mandatory? In today’s society, it is very common for parents to have their children vaccinated and to be vaccinated themselves. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (Source 1), more than 80% of children from the ages of 19 months to 35 months were immunized for several different diseases. I myself have always been vaccinated, but I believe that it is a person’s right to decide whether or not they want to be immunized. There are many health benefits to being vaccinated and I always have been, but there are also health risks that come along with it too. Along with health risks, there are some religious factors that can affect whether or not someone chooses to be immunized. Vaccinations should not be mandatory because it jeopardizes an individual’s right to make health decisions for themselves, some vaccinations can be dangerous, and it also could put an individual’s religious and cultural rights at risk. Many countries require their citizens to receive certain immunizations. In the United States, state laws dictate mandatory vaccinations, some of them are vaccinations required for children to enter school. Controversies over the efficacy, safety, and morality of compulsory immunization stem from the longstanding tension between two, sometimes opposing, goals: protecting individual liberties and safeguarding the public’s health. “Individual versus health priorities were

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